Demetra Brodsky is an award-winning graphic designer & art director turned writer. She has a B.F.A. from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design and lives in Southern California with her family of four and two lovable rescue dogs where she is always trying to make more time for the beach. Dive Smack is dedicated to Pumpkin, the monarch butterfly she once saved from the brink of death. Once you read the book, you'll understand why.

Long and Sassy

When I was a student at The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, I was awarded The Leo Zolli Book Award, a distinction given to one senior annually upon graduation who showed a passion for self-directed learning. A passion that has never died and led me to switching careers. Before I became a writer, I was an Art Director and designer, and before that the Director of Exhibits and Creative Services for The Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York where I had a direct hand in telling the stories of every artifact and fossil on display. All of that came after working as coat-check girl, waitress, and replacement tooth maker in a dental lab (Creepy but true). I'm a first-generation Greek-American and did not grow up in a house filled with books other than the Greek mythologies and encyclopedias my whip-smart father coveted. Instead, I greedily borrowed stacks of novels from school libraries, gorging myself on Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Lois Duncan, and S.E. Hinton before moving on to V.C. Andrews and Stephen King. In fact, it was S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders that first put the idea of being a writer in my head. So much so that in middle school, I became convinced I would marry Ponyboy Curtis and live on his ranch, conflating the character in the story with the actor. I blame Tiger Beat Magazine for fueling my pre-teen fantasies. It was at that point, however, that I realized the transformative power of fiction. My first hand at storytelling took shape shortly after when I successfully convinced my parents I won a puppy in a spelling bee. Having lived in the United States for multiple decades, my parents have now been apprised of the truth behind that tall tale (err, tail) and the true workings of the American school system. I am a native of Massachusetts living in Southern California with my family of four and two lovable rescue dogs. One of whom is named . . . wait for it . . . Ponyboy Curtis after the fictional boy who made me fall in love with character first. To date, he has lived up to his name. The dog, not the man.